Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi

NEW YORK, NY – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi tried to set up a tent in a New York suburb but was blocked by city officials, US media reported.

Gaddafi, who is famous for staying in his large Bedouin tent during foreign visits, was getting the tent erected in the city of Bedford on an estate owned by US billionaire Donald Trump, ABC News reported Tuesday.

But city officials sought to stop its construction, arguing it violates town regulations. It was unclear if the eccentric Libyan leader ever planned to stay in Bedford.

Trump may have unwittingly loaned the estate to Libya. His company in a statement said the property was leased to Middle Eastern partners that “may or may not have a relationship to Gaddafi” and it was looking into the issue.

Gaddafi’s people have previously been barred from erecting the tent in New York’s Central Park and on land in a New Jersey suburb owned by the Libyan embassy.

The ongoing saga has left Libya struggling to find a place for Gaddafi to stay during his visit to New York, where he is set to address the UN General Assembly this week. It is his first visit to the United States since taking power in 1969.

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Boris Yeltsin got so drunk during a 1995 visit to Washington that Secret Service agents found him a few hundred feet from the White House clad only in his underwear and trying to hail a cab — because, he explained, he wanted a pizza. 

The encounter and near international incident involving the former Russian President was revealed yesterday in a new oral history of Bill Clinton’s presidency, based on 79 taped interviews between Mr Clinton and the historian Taylor Branch during late-night visits to the White House. 

The taped conversations took place between 1993 and 2001 — the year Mr Clinton left office — and were the former President’s idea, because he wanted an intimate, behind-the-scenes perspective on his White House years as they were happening.

Mr Clinton also confided that his affair with Monica Lewinsky occurred when he felt sorry for himself and that “I cracked; I just cracked” under the pressure of personal and political setbacks, including the death of his mother and the loss of Congress to the Republicans in 1994.

Mr Clinton had at first been reluctant to talk about the Lewinsky affair because he feared that the tapes might be subject to subpoena and exposure and used against him. Yet, according to Mr Branch, in August 1999 — six months after he had survived the Senate impeachment trial — an emotional Mr Clinton opened up.

In an interview with USA Today, Mr Branch said he believed that Mr Clinton “had once strayed more often than that and made a big resolution not to do it in the White House because there was too much at stake”. He added: “From his point of view, he succeeded 99 per cent, but then felt sorry for himself and lapsed.”

Mr Branch, who shared a flat with Mr Clinton when they ran George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign in Texas, has turned the tapes into a 707-page book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, to be published next week.

The Yeltsin incident came after one of the former Russian President’s late-night drinking sessions. On the night in question, he was staying at Blair House, the guest quarters for foreign leaders visiting Washington, which sits directly across from the White House in Pennsylvania Avenue.

He managed to give his Secret Service detail the slip. Frantically looking for him, they found him in his underwear on Pennsylvania Avenue trying to get a taxi. He explained in slurred words that he wanted a pizza.

Mr Clinton recorded all his conversations with Mr Branch and kept the tapes hidden in a White House sock drawer. They also reveal a two-hour argument between Mr Clinton and Al Gore after the latter had lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush.

Mr Clinton told Mr Gore that the election could have been won if he had been dispatched to campaign in Arkansas and New Hampshire, states where Mr Clinton was popular.

Mr Gore responded that Mr Clinton’s affair with Ms Lewinsky had been a “drag” that had plagued him throughout the doomed campaign. The two “exploded” at each other in mutual recrimination, according to Mr Branch.

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Ben and Jerry’s Gives Away Gay-Rights Ice Cream

The ice cream company will distribute “Hubby Hubby“ in its home state of Vermont, celebrating gay marriage.

Gay Rights Ice Cream

Ben & Jerry’s is temporarily renaming their popular “Chubby Hubby” ice cream to “Hubby Hubby” starting Wednesday to celebrate the legalization of gay marriage in its home state of Vermont.

“The legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont is certainly a step in the right direction, and something worth celebrating with peace, love – and plenty of ice cream,” Ben & Jerry’s CEO Walt Freese said.

The Boston Herald reports that the ice cream will only be sold for 30 days and only in Vermont, mostly rendering the move symbolic.

A wedding-themed Ben & Jerry’s truck will give away free cartons of “Hubby Hubby” around Vermont Wednesday. One scheduled stop is the Vermont Capitol, where a gay-marriage law was passed that took effect Wednesday.

Yes Pe-can! Obama Ice Cream

The company is no stranger to liberal causes, in January renaming its Butter Pecan flavor to “Yes, Pecan” to celebrate President Obama’s inauguration.

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CHICAGO – If you’ve got the money, you could be President Barack Obama’s neighbour in Chicago.

The 17-room home next door to his house in a ritzy neighbourhood on the city’s south side is on the market.

It doesn’t have a price tag yet, but the listing agent said the “Obama factor” will play a role. Homes in the area usually go for between $1 million and $2.5 million.

The current owners bought the 6,000-square-foot (557-square-meter) home that has eight bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms for $35,000 in 1973.

But living near the Obamas isn’t without its hassles. The block is barricaded even when the Obamas aren’t home and getting on the street means being on a Secret Service list.

Prospective buyers will be screened by the Secret Service.

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